Train Rides and Shoulder Pillows
by F.A. Star Hawk
Summary: LJ Challenge. One-shot. Sena hasn't been getting enough sleep lately and falls asleep on the train. This turns out to be a bad idea. Luckily, Marco's there to protect him. Hinted Marco/Sena


FASH: Since school starts tomorrow I'm scrambling around to finish up all the challenges from kirskipkat I want to fill out, which is actually impossible but oh well. I bet the people who have me on author alert 'love' it when I post several things at the same time.

Disclaimer: I could lie and say I owned it, but I won't.

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena had been feeling restless lately. Ever since he had first learned about the formation of a Team Japan to play against other countries he'd been excited, and that excitement only seemed to grow with each passing day. The tournament itself was still a couple weeks away, but Sena found himself thinking about it every night before he went to sleep.

And every time he started thinking about it he'd start getting too psyched to calm down and rest.

So the result was that he was quite tired, which was ultimately not a good thing for him to be at the moment.

Hiruma had decided that all of Team Japan should gather together so that they could practice together and get a feel for their team mates now that they were all on the same side. That itself wasn't a bad idea, but Hiruma also wanted everyone to gather at Teikoku, so instead of only several people coming to Tokyo, over a dozen people had to travel to Osaka.

"Just be there by two in the afternoon!" He'd ordered everyone, leaving them to make their own decisions about what time to leave.

Admittedly Sena had wanted to get on an earlier train, but he had found himself quite lethargic that morning and it had taken him the better part of an hour to roll himself out of bed. It was a good thing he'd been to Teikoku before, otherwise he'd be doomed since apparently everyone else had wanted to get there early.

And now he was on the train, slowly being lulled to sleep by the muted sounds of the engine and the soft rocking motion of his compartment.

-x-x-x-

Marco, stretched his legs out, retracted them, and stretched them out again in what seemed to be and endless cycle. He had never been fond of trains and the lack of leg room he had on them.

"Gaou, I'm taking a walk." He said before moving out of his seat beside his large team mate, Gaou giving a barely perceivable nod in response as he looked out the window in boredom.

Marco strolled towards the back of the train, a little unnerved at how silent and empty the last few compartments seemed. By the time he reached the second last one he finally heard signs of human occupation, female whispers.

Their whispering wasn't particularly soft and Marco's ears had become so used to muted sounds that it really wasn't his fault he could hear everything they said.

"Do you think maybe I could cut off a couple strands of his hair before he wakes up?"

Marco cocked an eyebrow. 'Strange girls.'

"Why bother? Sit beside him, I'll take a picture and then you do the same for me. All the girls at school will be so jealous!"

"But what if he came with someone and they come back before we're done? If it ends up being his team captain we'll be dead!"

"But don't you want to take the chance? Maybe you could even give him a kiss before he wakes up, I'll snap a picture, and then everyone will think you're Eyeshield 21's girlfriend!"

Marco paused for a moment, eyes widening minutely. 'Sena?'

"Well, when you put it that way I guess I can't resist!"

The blue eyed boy frowned and strode forward, full of purpose. 'Oh yes you can.'

"Excuse me ladies," He called out charmingly. "but that would be my seat you're trying to steal."

The two girls turned to look at him and one of them frowned darkly.

"You're not on Deimon's team." She said, as if she thought Sena didn't socialize with anyone not on his team.

Her companion quickly pulled her closer and started whispering in her ear about something.

Marco took the opportunity to skim past them and sit himself down in the seat beside Sena, nonchalantly wrapping an arm around the smaller boy's shoulders before sending the girls a cool look.

The girl who had been whispering to the other seemed to understand his unspoken message and quickly grabbed onto her friend and exited the compartment.

Sena, completely unaware that Marco had just saved him from a rather embarrassing situation, tilted his head to rest on the other boy's shoulder, one hand griping Marco's coat to make sure his new pillow stayed in place.

Marco glanced down at him and, with a small sigh, decided that it would be too troublesome to wake Sena up to free himself from the boy's grip.

'It's not like I'll be missing any stellar conversation with Gaou anyways.' He reasoned with himself. 'And I've already stretched out my legs.'

Yes, he could handle this, nothing to get flustered about.

-x-x-x-

Sena slowly awoke with the strange feeling that something wasn't quite right.

"It seems the sleeping beauty is awake, I'd say."

His eyes snapped open at that and he turned to stare at Marco incredulously.

"When did you get here?"

"Oh, just before a couple ladies decided to go ahead with their plans to de-flower you." Marco relied calmly.

Sena gaped at him. "What?"

"Well, perhaps not to that extent. You look tired, go back to sleep. I'll wake you up when we reach the station."

Sena's eyes seemed to immediately droop at the mention of sleep and he slowly nodded before resting his head on Marco's shoulder once again.

'I'll have to sit beside him on the return trip too, otherwise who knows what sort of trouble he'll get himself into.'


End file.
